Warner is the pilot who helped take down Tuttle. He's been with the sheriff's office almost 5 years but has been flying most of his life.

"A great deal of satisfaction comes from knowing that you're helping to protect the citizens of Lee County," said Warner.

But how much are you paying for that protection? Fox 4 looked through flight logs for FY 2011 (10/1/10-9/30/11). We discovered the county's two choppers flew 894 hours totaling $576,122 in operation costs - things like fuel and maintenance.

Add on $621,246 for pilot and mechanic salaries and you paid $1,197,368.

"Is that a lot of money? Yes," said Warner. "Is the bang worth the buck? I think so."

The sheriff's office flies an AStar 350, which Warner says is used by 60-65 percent of all law enforcement agencies in the U.S.

According to Warner, the average cost of operating the chopper for the last four years was $954,000. This year was slightly higher due to several expensive parts needing to be replaced.

"Instead of risk flying with them," said Warner, "we went ahead and replaced those components."

Documents show the chopper was responsible for 170 arrests, 38 missing people found and 13 stolen cars recovered during FY11.

But we discovered it was also used to fly from Buckingham Air Field in Lehigh Acres to the sheriff's headquarters in Fort Myers for staff meetings.

"Is that really efficient to fly to a meeting instead of driving to one?," asked Grant.

"No," said Warner. "But the cost would be about 2 tenths of an hour total to be able to get down there and do that."

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